Via infoplease.com: Campaign-Finance Reform: History and Timeline shows some of the most key stages in the campaign finance reform battle but only starts in 1890. Unfortunately, money in politics goes even further back than that! Via ctn.state.ct.us, Victor W. Geraci, PhD draws the timeline back as far as 1757 when: “(George) Washington was charged with a kind of campaign spending irregularity in his race for a seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Said to have purchased and distributed during the campaign more than a quart of rum, beer, and hard cider per voter (391 voters in the district).”